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For 147 years, marriage vows in Mexico portrayed women as delicate, weak and potentially annoying.
These days, judges across Mexico are switching to versions that stress equality and mutual support, reflecting the growing power of women in a country still struggling with macho attitudes.

The old vows say that a husband should treat his wife with a “generous benevolence that the strong should give to the weak” and that a woman should “avoid awakening the most brusque, irritable and hard part” of her husband’s personality. So no nagging, ladies!
Younger couples are opting for vows that are less, you know, stupid.

The first rule of domestic violence in China is don’t talk about domestic violence in China. Victims face “fear and shame” when they speak out within”a culture that denies there is a problem,” as Kim Lee, an American advocate who was married to an abusive Chinese partner, told the New York Times. Abusers are almost never held to account. Confucian patriarchal norms blame women for domestic discords, inadequate law enforcement has little understanding of abusive relationship dynamics, and the public is largely apathetic. Though pending legislative changes may better situation, China is to date an ideal place for domestic ...

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

*Trigger warning: domestic violence and sexual assault*

The first rule of domestic violence in China is don’t talk about domestic violence in China. Victims face “fear and ...

In the op-ed, Xiao Meili describes her own feminist awakening in the context of China’s current political landscape. Like so many of us, she remembers a growing awareness of unequal dynamics within the family in her childhood, having this sense bolstered in college with feminist readings, and then creating a community of feminists to take to the streets, the Internet, and across the world.

Xiao Meili and her fellow feminists in China are fighting for similar issues that this great Feministing community also puts ...

A few days ago, Germany’s highest court finally struck down a state law that had banned women from wearing headscarves in classrooms. But the decision, a victory after more than a decade of legal and public debate, is sadly an isolated sign of optimism within an increasingly bleak picture of Western countries marginalizing Muslim women for the way they dress.

Earlier this month, France’s women’s minister expressed support for a university-wide headscarf ban, arguing: “I’m not sure the headscarf is part of higher education.” (The fact that she is the country’s secretary for women’s rights is particularly awkward.) Her comments came as former president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed banning female students from wearing headscarves at all French universities. In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen ...

A few days ago, Germany’s highest court finally struck down a state law that had banned women from wearing headscarves in classrooms. But the decision, a victory after more than a decade of legal and public ...